Longer Courses

Relaxed schedules, guidance from experienced teachers and the beautiful setting of the Yorkshire Wolds make these retreats ideal as introductions to finding inner peace.

Everybody is welcome.

Seating is either on chairs or cushions, whichever you prefer. A variety of accommodation types is available – just click the booking info link to see room types and prices. Accommodation prices include all meditation sessions, meals and accommodation.

2017

24th to 26th February

21st to 23rd April

9th to 11th June

30th June – 4 July (longer course)

22nd to 24th September

3rd to 5th November

These learn to meditate weekend retreats are ideal if you are seeking relaxation and gentle guidance to help you cultivate a spacious and balanced mind through meditation. These fun weekends give step-by-step instructions for those wishing to learn the very basics of meditation.

Suitable for beginners and also for those wanting to refresh their meditation practice, these meditation weekends are a great way to learn basic meditation techniques, and to improve and deepen our experience of meditation and inner peace in the relaxing environment of Madhyamaka KMC.

“Wonderful weekend – peaceful, enriching, restorative and new friends too! Thank you to everyone at the centre who works so hard to make Madhyamaka such a magical place.”

The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful.

If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions.

If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. For example, if we get what we want, such as a new possession or a new partner, we become excited and cling to them tightly.

However, since we cannot have everything we want, and since we will inevitably be separated from the friends and possessions we currently enjoy, this mental stickiness, or attachment, serves only to cause us pain. On the other hand, if we do not get what we want, or if we lose something that we like, we become despondent or irritated.

For example, if we are forced to work with a colleague whom we dislike, we will probably become irritated and feel aggrieved, with the result that we will be unable to work with him or her efficiently and our time at work will become stressful and unrewarding.

Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sand castle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide.

By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.

If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.